The Centre d’étude des relations internationales (Centre for the Study of International Relations) was founded in 1952 by Jean Meyriat—a pioneer in the information and communication sciences—and Jean-Baptiste Duroselle—a historian and specialist in the history of diplomacy and international relations. It was the first research department in the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (FNSP – National Foundation for Political Science) whose General Secretary at the time was Jean Meynaud. For a few years, it was made up of just one full-time researcher along with several faculty participating on a voluntary basis and the assistance of a few staff members on temporary contracts. Seventy years later, the centre comprises more than seventy PhD students, fifty permanent faculty, and a research support team of fifteen, not to mention many associate researchers...
Initial budget projections, January 1955. Fonds Jean Touchard, 6SP3, Sciences Po Archives. Photo: Miriam Périer, Sciences Po.
At Jean Meyriat’s instigation, the CERI was first developed as a research documentation centre, not only for its own researchers but also for the Institut d’Études Politiques library. The CERI’s researchers willingly made their documentation accessible to students at Sciences Po and at various Parisian universities. The first initial budget projections specific to the CERI appeared in 1955.
Jean Meyriat, now sole director with Hélène Arnaud as assistant director from 1959 onwards, was determined to make the CERI a locus for the analysis of the international scene, at a time when France was lacking specialists in this field. The CERI was therefore set to fulfil a dual research mission: studying not only the United Nations, to shed light on its political and solution evolutions, but also the relations between its actors, their conflicts, their groupings, and all other forms of cooperation. The sheer scope of this ambition forced the CERI to grow rapidly and, over the years, it eventually became the largest French research centre working in this area.
An important milestone was reached in 1958 when the CERI was awarded a grant from the Ford Foundation to develop research on Latin America. Shortly after, the FNSP, pursuing its efforts to develop the CERI included the centre in its annual budget.
Note by Jean-Baptiste Duroselle on the future of French political science in 1959, Sciences Po Archives, Fonds Jean Touchard, 6SP3.
‘It seems to me that the current situation in French higher education and research is particularly favourable. French ‘dynamism’, which is truly independent from any regime, is a reality that translates into the need to break out of certain rigid frameworks and to break free from certain mummified traditions. In concrete terms, the influx of students coincides with a rising awareness of the need for fundamental research in all areas. If France is now ‘starting up again’, despite limited means, in a large number of areas, both scientific and technical, then it seems to me that this opens up considerable possibilities for other areas, and particularly our own. Once again, I would conclude that it is largely up to our group to choose between the following attitudes: slowing down the movement, hobbling along after it, or playing an avant-garde role within it.
(…)
While the Fondation does possess the necessary ingredients – experience, dynamism, and flexibility – to substantially develop teaching and research in political science, and while, consequently, logic and realism would suggest we view it as the driving force in this field, the fact remains that it currently faces considerable difficulties when it comes to playing this role.
(…)
It seems to me that our shortcomings and weaknesses essentially derive
- from a conception of what political science is that is too rudimentary, too fragmented, and too dispersed
- from the relative incoherency of the organic structure of our research
- from the imperfect organization of links between ‘research’ and ‘researcher training’
- from the staff’s lack of ‘status’, leading to the current impossibility of providing stable careers
(…) I think it is necessary to go further, in the immediate future, towards a more structured conception of the Fondation’s research institutions.
My proposal is as follows: within the framework and under the authority of the Fondation, we must generalize the system of centres of study for which the C.E.R.I is the prototype. What can we learn from the C.E.R.I.’s still brief history?
- That it is very practical to have flexible institutions that do not have the status of a legal entity – the latter remaining the sole preserve of the Fondation – because this situation makes it possible quickly to adapt needs to resources without any burdensome external intervention, since authority lies exclusively with the Fondation’s management, which is free to delegate some of this authority de facto to those in whom it has faith. The C.E.R.I. does not need to burden itself with an honorary committee, a management committee, and so on.
- That the C.E.R.I. is, in a sense, indefinitely malleable. It was created in 1952 on a very modest basis, but nevertheless published 6 volumes. Since 1958, it has seen an influx of resources and has been in a position to increase its efforts considerably, which became resoundingly clear from 1960-1961 onwards when the first of the large projects currently underway emerged.
- That the C.E.R.I.’s internal structure is also able to adapt to every need. (…)
- That the existence of a centre seems to be the best way of obtaining grants, whether from various French ministries or from American foundations.
Given these advantages, and taking current needs into account, why not create other centres, rigorously similar in status?’
In 1967, the centre obtained the status of Laboratoire associé with the CNRS (it went on to become an Unité de recherché associée in 1994, an Unité propre de recherche de l’enseignement supérieur associée [UPRESA] in 1997, and an Unité mixte de recherche in 2002). This allowed the CERI to welcome new researchers with CNRS status and led the centre to create a Conseil de laboratoire or management committee. May 1968, a few months later, further reinforced this shift towards greater collegiality. Political science asserted its independence in relation to law, including in the field of international studies, while the affiliation with the CNRS allows the FNSP research centres to participate even more actively in the debates of the discipline.
At this time the CERI was organized into geographical sections, made up of varying numbers of researchers, with each section run by one researcher. The main ‘sections’ were: European politics; the USSR and Eastern Europe; China; Mediterranean Europe; the United States; Latin America; Sub-Saharan Africa; the Arab world; South and South-East Asia.
Beyond these sections, researchers also progressively grouped together around cross-cutting themes, such as international conflicts, the influence of internal factors on foreign policy decisions, European communisms, the role of armed forces, ‘non-competitive’ elections, decolonization in Asia and Africa, etc.
Mai 1968 at Sciences Po: Sciences Po participating in the 13th May demonstration at its point of departure, Gare de l’Est: Hélène Arnaud, Alain Lancelot, and Josée Cabillon.
In October 1975, Guy Hermet took over from Jean Meyriat as director of the CERI for a three-year renewable term, according to the statutes defined by the FNSP in agreement with the CNRS. The centre was then split across several Parisian sites, still on the Left Bank: in the buildings of Sciences Po itself, in the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH), Rue de Lille, Rue de Verneuil, and Rue de l’Abbaye. Six months after this new leadership, the CERI moved into Reid Hall, 4 Rue de Chevreuse in the 6th arrondissement. It remained on this site, for which many would remain nostalgic, for 25 years. The centre was still not fully grouped together, though, since around a dozen researchers remained at the MSH until 1997 when they moved into offices in FNSP premises on Square de Luynes (7th arrondissement).
In 1976, Guy Hermet envisaged offering up some of the CERI’s studies to ‘decision-makers’. The centre was renamed the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (Centre for international studies and research)—a name it kept for almost forty years and that allowed it to retain its original acronym. The word ‘études’ in French referred here to the expert reports produced for these ‘decision makers’. At the same time, Guy Hermet steered the research centre towards collaboration with universities and research centres abroad.
In this spirit, he was sent to Bogota (Columbia) by Sciences Po with a view to setting up the Institut des Hautes Etudes du Développement (The Institute of Advanced Studies in Development). This research and teaching institution went on to become a partner of the FNSP and of several Columbian universities. Geneviève Bibes, a researcher specializing in Italy, was made interim director of the CERI for a year until Guy Hermet returned to his post in 1981.
The CERI’s director also strived to make the centre’s work known among non-specialists in the press, the non-profit sector, and the corporate world. Alongside increasingly frequent international conferences, Guy Hermet launched the ‘Rencontres du CERI’ events that consisted in meetings focusing on current affairs topics and addressing this broader audience. This effort to respond to a societal demand went hand-in-hand with the development of fundamental research. In 1982, Guy Hermet obtained a specific budget from Sciences Po’s scientific management in order to fund ‘special projects’, that is to say highly targeted research conducted over several years by one or several researchers and leading to a book or a conference.
From 1981 onwards, Guy Hermet also lent the centre’s logistical support to the journal Politique africaine begun by Jean-François Leguil-Bayart in collaboration with other researchers working on Africa. This journal has now been running for over forty years and is still being supported by the CERI in 2022.
Research publications, les Cahiers du CERI. Photo: Caroline Maufroid, Sciences Po.
Jean-Luc Domenach was appointed director of the CERI in 1985. He pursued and heightened the momentum set in motion by Guy Hermet in several directions, with the help of Hélène Arnaud who was first appointed as a project manager in 1983 and then held the post of General Secretary of the centre from 1989 onwards. The CERI was the first FNSP research centre to introduce the latter post, which went on to be generalized across all the institution’s research centres. During this period, Hélène Arnaud had by her side Hélène Cohen, secretary to the director, Sylvie Haas in information services, and Francine Biancardi in administrative management.
Jean-Luc Domenach travelled extensively—in Japan, South America, North America, and Europe—in the company of researchers working on the areas in question and with a view to both building ties with the CERI’s foreign counterparts and developing joint exchange and research programmes, in connection with Sciences Po’s International Relations Office.
The centre’s director strengthened its ties with its governing institution, Sciences Po, by ensuring that its researchers were better embedded in the latter’s teaching programmes, especially at DEA level (second year of graduate study), and by affiliating many of Sciences Po’s funded PhD students with the centre’s research groups. In the same spirit, he created the ‘Mardis du CERI’ (CERI Tuesdays) for students at the Institut d’Études Politiques. The CERI’s researchers also gave annual cycles of lectures on the international environment for Sciences Po’s continuing education department.
Rachel Bouyssou’s appointment allowed Jean-Luc Domenach to pursue a full-scale publication policy. Together, they created the CERI series in partnership with the publishers Éditions Complexe and Éditions du Seuil, as well as a collection of ‘works in progress’ – the Cahiers du CERI. Similarly, Jean-Luc Domenach increased the support provided by his centre to the Cahiers d’étude de la Méditerrannée orientale et du monde turco-iranien (CEMOTI) created by Semih Vaner in 1985.
At the same time, Jean-Luc Domenach transformed the CERI’s associate researcher status, which, until then, had above all concerned former members of the CERI who wished to continue their work under the centre’s auspices after retirement or those who had left for other jobs but wished to maintain ties with the CERI. Jean-Luc Domenach opened up this associate status to colleagues from other universities working in political science or other disciplines. Today these ‘associate faculty’ continue to participate in, or even run, CERI research groups as well as to contribute to the centre’s publications.
In order better to promote the CERI’s research, Jean-Luc Domenach obtained from the FNSP a communications officer position, which was given to Karolina Michel. Lasting ties were built with journalists in the written and audio-visual press. In the same vein, he also introduced the ‘Club Presse CERI’ in collaboration with the newspaper Ouest-France. For many years, several times per year, this press club brought together ten or so representatives of the regional or national written press, with a researcher from the centre discussing a current affairs issue.
The CERI’s director also developed relationships with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence, which both contributed to doubling the centre’s operating budget in just a few years by (co-)funding conferences and research projects.
At the end of his nine years in office, Jean-Luc Domenach was appointed Scientific Director of the FNSP and Jean-François Leguil-Bayard took over from him as director of the CERI in 1994. The research centre continued to grow in science and scope. Jean-François Leguil-Bayard expanded the administrative team by adding new recruits occupying roles that were novel for the centre and in fact for a research centre in political science more generally. Francine Bianciardi was joined by Linda Amrani in the ‘management division’. Judith Burko lent further reinforcement to the publishing division, taking on responsibility for the Etudes du CERI and for promoting Critique Internationale, before taking over the French book collections. Finally, Grégory Calès, who was the first webmaster of a FNSP research centre, developed the CERI’s website. Miloud Tazibt joined him shortly after to handle IT maintenance.
Leaflets presenting CERI conferences and workshops, CERI research, a selected bibliography, and the Rencontres du CERI. Photo: Caroline Maufroid, Sciences Po.
The number of scientific events organized rose from around fifty to around a hundred per year (conferences, meetings, round tables, lecture-debates, strategy seminars, and research seminars). Many now took place in English owing to the CERI’s increasing integration in international networks.
Jean-François Leguil-Bayard—who, like Jean-Luc Domenach was a former consultant with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Centre d’Analyse et de Prévision (CAP – Centre for analysis and planning)—drew up an exchange agreement with the Ministry under which, for short periods, a Ministry diplomat would join the CERI while a CERI researcher joined the CAP. Leguil-Bayard pursued the diversification of the CERI’s resources by obtaining new funding from several ministries and introduced the ‘corporate’ subscription package that was principally based on a ‘strategy’ seminar reserved for subscribers and on the Études du CERI, publishing extremely detailed expert reports providing overviews of topical issues.
Alongside this series, which responded to an important aspect of societal demand, Jean-François Leguil-Bayart created a series of research books published by Karthala entitled ‘Recherches internationales’, which he still runs today.
In 1996, Jean-François Leguil-Bayart entrusted Christophe Jaffrelot and Rachel Bouyssou with piloting a focus group on the possibility of creating an international research journal. Two years later, Critique internationale was launched—a quarterly journal published by the Presses de Sciences Po. In 2023, it will publish its hundredth issue!
Jean-François Leguil-Bayart implemented a scientific policy focusing on two major areas: first, promoting sectors that were less well covered by the CERI, such as political economy, while maintaining the centre’s strengths; second, striving better to integrate the CERI in international research. With this in mind, he tasked his two assistant directors, Christophe Jaffrelot and Christian Lequesne, appointed at the beginning of his second term in office, to set up new collaborations with European and Asian partners. In the same vein, in 1999 he cemented the collaboration with British publisher Hurst, set in motion by Christophe Jaffrelot, by launching the publication of books in English in a new series entitled The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies, published in both in Great Britain and the United States thanks to partnerships in place. This was the beginning of a deliberate policy, which has never waned since, to translate the work of the centre’s researchers and to disseminate it internationally.
Critique internationale, photo: Caroline Maufroid, Sciences Po.
In 2000, thanks to the efforts of its director Jean-François Leguil-Bayart, the CERI was able to bring together all its researchers and administrative staff in the prestigious premises of the Hotel d’York, located 56 Rue Jacob, much closer to Sciences Po. While Anne Dubaquié had already joined the administrative team Rue de Chevreuse as management assistant, it was now Sylvia Granoulhac’s turn to join Jean-Pierre Joyeux in the documentation department on these new premises.
In spring 2000, Christophe Jaffrelot and Christian Lequesne, who had been assistant directors since 1997, proposed a plan for joint directorship before eventually being appointed respectively director and assistant director in October 2000. Their project was structured around four priority areas: pursuing the CERI’s internationalization; improving researchers’ inclusion in the activities of both the centre and Sciences Po; combining conducting fundamental research and responding to societal demand; and diversifying the centre’s funding sources.
Pursuing internationalization first of all involved adding new foreign partners (Italian in particular) and creating a series of books published by Palgrave (New York/London), entitled International Relations and Political Economy; in autumn 2002, a translator, Cynthia Schoch, was hired, giving a new dimension to this endeavour. The inclusion of CERI researchers in Sciences Po’s activities saw an initial implementation with the creation of the status of directeur/directrice d’études (Director of Studies) for those who were most invested in the École doctoral (Doctoral School) now renamed the École de la recherche (Research School). The emphasis placed on fundamental research led to the re-launching of working papers in a new online series, 'Questions de recherche/Research in question', run by two researchers from the centre, Denis-Constant Martin and Béatrice Pouligny, later replaced by Sandrine Perrot and Gilles Favarel Garrigues. Response to societal demand took the shape of the creation of a new series, ‘Mondes et Nations’, published with Autrement which went on to bring out twenty-five books taking up the mantle of the series ‘Espace international’ published with Complexe. The CERI’s research is also disseminated thanks to the partnership set up with Alternatives Internationales and Courrier International. Finally, the effort to diversify the CERI’s funding involved setting up new partnerships (for example, with the German Marshall Fun) and European research projects, as well as by developing the corporate subscription in the shape of a Privileged Partnership with companies, but also with associations, NGOs, and French and foreign government bodies.
Research publications in different series and with different publishers, in French and in English. Photo: Caroline Maufroid, Sciences Po.
During his two successive terms in office, Christophe Jaffrelot remained committed to continuing and stepping up the centre’s involvement in publishing, especially in English. The ‘Publications division’ made up of Judith Burko and, from January 2004 onwards, Catherine Burucoa, managing editor of the journal Critique Internationale, was then further consolidated in 2006 by the appointment of Miriam Périer to oversee the creation of International Political Sociology. Launched by Didier Bigo, this journal took up the mantle of the English-language series after the departure of Cynthia Schoch, whose collaboration with the CERI nevertheless continued for a long time since she translated books written by the centre’s members for over twenty years on a freelance basis. The Documentation division was reinforced by the arrival of Martine Jouneau, while Corinne Deloy arrived to contribute to the centre’s publishing activities before later taking on editorial responsibility for the CERI’s website.
In the 2000s, EU-funded research under the Framework Programmes (FP) began to develop and take firm root. One of the first CERI researchers to lead this kind of project was Didier Bigo, with ELISE and CHALLENGE that brought together 23 European partners. In 2004, the CERU recruited an expert in this field, Roxana Vermel, in the role of projects manager. The same year, the CERI welcomed its first executive director, Ewa Kulesza, who, still today, works with the successive directors and coordinates the work of the research support team. Catherine Honnorat, the CERI’s general secretary, appointed in 1999, coordinated the administrative team during Christophe Jaffrelot’s and Christian Lequesne’s terms of office. During this period, the administrative team grew with several members of staff being appointed over the years, including Céline Ballereau, Martine Vignola, Etienne Guigonnat, Marie-Christine Pavone, Binta Dramé, Isabelle Romera, Françoise Bouyssou, editor-in-chief of the website, Muriel Posson, administrative assistant, Dorian Ryser, information services manager and cartographer, and Jean-Pierre Masse, webmaster after having been co-leader of the ELISE and CHALLENGE programmes.
In 2009, Christian Lequesne, who had returned to France after several years abroad, became director of the CERI, assisted by Nadia Alexici. He was keen to strengthen the centre’s online presence and encouraged digital publications in particular, while also initiating a complete overhaul of the website, with the support of Nathalie Tenenbaum, head of communications for the CERI at the time. One fine success remains the CERISCOPES collection. Its publication was enabled by external funding and the technical and editorial skills of the team created for this occasion: Jean-Pierre Masse, Gregory Calès, Dorian Ryser, and Colombe Camus, in partnership with l’Atelier de cartographie de Sciences Po.
Filmed debates, entitled ‘Au fil des mots’, were also introduced, in partnership with the publisher André Versailles, and relayed on the CERI’s website.
ERIS & Politique africaine, two journals supported by the CERI. Photo: Caroline Maufroid, Sciences Po.
During his term in office, Christian Lequesne began a new journal in English, European Review of International Studies, in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University in the United Kingdom and the German publisher Verlag Barbara Budrich until Brill took up the journal. During these same years, the first dedicated space for PhD students was officially inaugurated 56 Rue Jaccob: an open space office located on the second floor of the building, with twenty desks and computers. In 2010, the CERI introduced a general seminar for PhD students. In 2012, for the centre’s 60th anniversary, these young researchers were placed front and centre as they organized an international conference.
Over time, the CERI saw an increase in the variety of both its approaches and its objects of study, while the centre also increased in size thanks to new appointments, particularly via the CNRS and requests for associate status. Since 2014, under the two successive terms during which Alain Dieckhoff (a political scientist working on questions of nationalism and on the Israeli-Palestinian space) was director, the CERI became clearly structured around five major fields of research (The State and the transformation of the State, Actors and levels of regulation in world politics, Identity and politics, Political participation and mobilization, and Violence and danger management). This allowed specialists in international and transnational relations to be housed ‘under the same roof’ as specialists in area studies. While consolidating its team focusing on regional area studies, the CERI engaged in a drive to expand its work in international relations (study of foreign policy, questions of defence and security, environmental issues, etc.).
Alain Dieckhoff strongly encouraged researchers to engage in funded research projects whether national (ANR, AFD, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Armed Forces, IRSEM, etc.) or via the European mechanisms (Horizon 2020, ERC, HERA, Marie Curie grants and networks). These funding instruments ensure the possibility of conducting research over the long term. The CERI’s scientific expertise has increased significantly in two areas at the heart of contemporary issues: migration and religion.
Openspace office for PhD students, 56 rue Jacob. Photo: Caroline Maufroid, Sciences Po.
The CERI has stepped up the pace of its integration into research networks, as evidenced by its participation in four scientific groups (Middle East, Asia, Africa, religion) and in the research group on ‘Multilateralism’. The inclusion of PhD students has been furthered by a range of different seminars.
The research support team has seen the renewal of the majority of its members of staff, especially in the second half of the 2010s, with the arrival of Basma Daouadi Guinnefollau in finance and Coralie Meyer in communications, to give just two examples. The communications division, integral in the organization of many online and onsite events, was reinforced by the arrival of a new team. Since January 2021, a new division made up of Miriam Périer, Grégory Calès, and Dorian Ryser took over the centre’s scientific outreach and mediation. As of 2022, the team responsible for research support, managed by Ewa Kulesza, the CERI’s executive director, is 14 strong.
Since 2015, the CERI has once again changed its name, and is now the Centre de recherches internationales (Center for International Studies). The acronym has remained the same, but this new name reflects first of all the conviction that the ‘international’, in the largest possible sense, or the contemporary ‘world space’, must be studied by a dual approach in terms of both international/transnational relations and area studies. It also aims to assert even more clearly that, while the CERI remains open to civil society and responsive to societal demand, it is above all a centre for fundamental research. In 2022, the year of its 70th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of Sciences Po, the centre also changed premises again, and is now entirely located in one single site 28 Rue des Saints-Pères.
Sadly, in this year of commemoration, the CERI remains orphaned of one of its members, Fariba Adelkhah, research director at Sciences Po, who was arrested in Iran in 1019 where she is still imprisoned (Roland Marchal, a CNRS researcher arrested at the same time, was liberated in March 2020). Our most fervent wish is for her finally to be able to see her colleagues again.
Translated from the French by Lucy Garnier.
Gathering in support of Fariba Adelkhah, detained in Iran since June 2019. Photo: Laurent Gayer.
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